Pirates! What's your take? What should we do? ( Archived) (67)

UN: Somali Pirates Capture 4 Americans
February 19, 2011
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- Somalia's U.N. Mission said Friday that pirates hijacked a yacht carrying four U.S. citizens in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.

Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, identified the yacht as the S/V Quest.

He said the mission is calling for the immediate release of the hostages and all other captives who are in the hands of the pirates.

Jamal said the hijacking raises "serious concern" as it follows the sentencing in New York on Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship off the coast of Africa in 2009. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

A website chronicling the voyage of a yacht named S/V Quest describes it as being the home of Jean and Scott Adam. The couple has been sailing around the world since December 2004, according to the website. "This is planned to be an eight or ten year voyage," it states.

The Adams run a Bible ministry, according to their website, and have been distributing Bibles to schools and churches in remote villages in areas including the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia.

The couple are members of the Marina del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, California, according to the website. A woman who answered the phone there Friday night would not confirm that the couple are members and said the club could not release any information.

Earlier on Friday, The European Union's anti-piracy task force said it appeared that Somali pirates had hijacked a separate vessel, the Alfardous, and its eight crew members in the Gulf of Aden. The force said it had no more details about the vessel since it was seized Sunday.

Somalia hasn't had a functioning government since 1991, and piracy has flourished off its coast. The pirates earn multimillion dollar ransoms from the hijackings. They were holding 29 ships and roughly 660 hostages before the latest seizures.

Jamal said the mission again appeals to the international community to help curb the ever increasing acts of piracy.

Also Friday, Interpol said it will help seven African nations better fight piracy off the coast of Somalia.

The program is expected to cost $2.17 million (euro1.6 million), said Pierre Saint Hilaire, the assistant director of the Interpol's maritime piracy task force.

If no one paid ransom the first time out the problem would have ended then and there.

Unfortunately now the stakes have been upped. 660 hostages are one hell of a reason not to get rough with the pirates.

They are also the very best reason to get very, very rough with the pirates. Dumping a few bodies of pirates on the shore might be a wake up call to their brothers in crime.

The problem with that is that paying them in the past has trained them to believe they have some special right to do what they do. Undoubtedly hostages would pay the price of their retraining as well as many pirates.

How many innocents will lose their lives if the problem is not dealt with though?

Factoring the cost of anything is no fun but it is even less fun when one of the unavoidable costs is human lives.

Hey Katt. I would post my opinion but most people would not like it. Hence the reason for asking others.

Somolia should be given UN help to form a responsible government. If that fails the area should be given to the surrounding countries (Ethiopia and Kenya, Yemen, maybe a piece to Djibouti) and basically abolished as a free standing country.

In the mean time all ships that are not involved in commerce or fishing should be bottled up in port and/or mothballed until the owners prove they are not involved in pirating. Perhaps some sort of license process will help accomplish that.

Ditto

China has the answer my friends. They are using intelligent and trained Dolfins to fight the pirates...

China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack - NYTimes.com

I don't believe this was an issue of injustice, just a symptom of a country's governemnt falling apart and vigilantism which eventually turned into piracy. These people are pirates pure and simple. Any residual trace of vigilantiam or sense of purpose is long gone, replaced by greed.

Personally, I believe any hostile move by any pirate should result in their immediate termination. These are not illegal fishermen or toxic waste dumber they're praying on.

Pirates will always be one step ahead of you and your fake governments Arrrrgh!